We are lending our support to UKAS’s call for fresh dialogue on an EU-UK Mutual Recognition Agreement on conformity assessment.
A UKAS paper published this week explains how such an agreement would remove the threat and associated costs of duplicate conformity assessment activity and give long-term certainty to both EU and UK manufacturers and importers.
Many testing, inspection and certification companies are already operating as both UK Approved Bodies and EU Notified Bodies across many regulations, and it’s BMTA’s view that the duplicate assessment and administration processes required adds cost and delay to the attestation process without adding any significant benefit to industry or society.
Mutual recognition, built on accreditation and collaboration, would allow competent, accredited bodies to support manufacturers and importers across both markets while keeping standards high and aligned, which is especially important in emerging legislative areas such as cyber security and AI governance.
We welcome UKAS giving this issue the publicity it deserves and we look forward to supporting the conversation as it progresses.
Read the UKAS news item and the full paper here.
